


Twenty-two Questions

by Cee693



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 19:49:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22003510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cee693/pseuds/Cee693
Summary: Light and fun compenent to my other Tumblr requested fic for Barry and Iris spending time together before Crisis.Barry and Iris play a game of "Truth".
Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West
Comments: 10
Kudos: 111





	Twenty-two Questions

**Author's Note:**

> I made a much less angsty fic for @allaboutmybucks 's request: Barry and Iris spending time together before impending Crisis.
> 
> *UnBeta'd and I'm not sure about my 1:00 a.m. proofreading skills.

"So, why can't we just finish the movie?" Barry wondered again as Iris shut off their television and returned to her spot on the couch. 

"We've been watching for two and a half hours and we're barely halfway," she complained. "This is so freaking boring."

Barry sighed, but kept his mouth shut. She'd already sat through two other director's cuts this weekend with no complaints. The least he could do was to let her turn off a third. 

"Well, what do you want to do instead?" he questioned. 

Iris shrugged and stretched her arms tiredly before an idea hit her. 

"Let's play a game," she proposed.

"What game?"

"Let's ask each other questions."

Barry squinted. "I think that's just called having a conversation, Iris."

Iris rolled her eyes. "No, Barry like we take turns asking each other things. Personal things. You can ask any question you want. Truth or Dare without the dares because, honestly, I really don't feel like moving."

"So just 'truth'?" Barry laughed. 

Iris smiled. "Sure, why not? It's always fun sharing secrets."

"Iris, we've been best friends for over twenty years. We've been married for two. I think we've fully exhausted the secrets vault."

Iris narrowed her eyes playfully. "Don't be so sure, Mr. Allen."

Barry sighed. "Alright. How do we play?"

"One of us asks a question and the other has to answer truthfully. If you can't think of a question to ask, you may request a secret instead. Let's make it… twenty-two questions each."

Barry looked at her, unconvinced, but Iris wasn't deterred. 

"I'll go first," she said excitedly. Barry had to smile at how adorable she was. 

"Umm. Okay," She thought for a minute before she landed on her first question. "How do you think we met in our original timeline? The one in the newspaper?"

Barry's brows shot up. That was a question he'd never actually thought about. 

Since the first time he saw her hyphenated name in the newspaper byline all those years ago, he had obsessed over how to make it come true in _this_ reality. 

He never actually thought about how it came to be in the old one. 

"Well, going off Flashpoint, it seems like we lost touch after Elementary school," he surmised slowly, thinking. "We probably went to different junior highs and then different high schools and colleges. Maybe we reconnected at a crime scene years later when we both were back in Central City. You a rookie reporter, me a rookie CSI. We could have bonded over the abuse our respective careers brought," Barry laughed. 

He knew he could try a little harder, but any real answer felt too far-fetched to be true anyway. 

Not even three blissful years of being in a relationship with Iris West could make him cocky enough to think up different ways he could've gotten her. 

He was still dazed that he’d managed to pull it off in this life alone.

"Well, I think we had a meet-cute at the farmer's market," Iris revealed, not letting Barry's levity spoil the game. "In my head, we met on a warm fall morning. A Saturday. You were on the hunt for some apples to make Nora's Famous Apple Cider. And at the same time I was perusing for the perfect Granny Smith for Grandma Esther's cobbler." she intertwined her fingers with his. "Our hands touched when we reached for the same one and we shared a look and a laugh and then the rest was history."

Barry smiled. He could picture that playing out in his head and the thought made him feel warm. "That's really nice," he told her. 

Iris smiled and nodded. "Right? Okay now your turn. Ask any question you want."

"Alright." Barry thought for a minute. "What's one thing you've never told me before, but you wanted to?"

Barry was honestly expecting Iris to say she tells him everything and just put an end to this endeavor, but when she tilted her head and bit her lip with a sheepish grin he sat up straighter. "Wait, there is seriously something you've never told me before?"

"I don't get why you're so surprised by that, Barry!" Iris laughed. "Of course we still have secrets. We're married, we're not members of some weird alien hive mind."

Barry didn't want to say he was offended by that remark, but he definitely felt thrown for a loop. 

He genuinely couldn't think of a single thing that Iris didn't know about him at this very moment.

"And I don't want to put you on the spot, but you spent seventeen years secretly in love with your best friend. I think if you dig deep enough you'll remember there are more than a few hidden moments or feelings from back then that you've never told me."

"But those aren't secrets so much as they're confusing and painfully awkward and embarrassing memories that I've fully repressed for the sake of our relationship," Barry argued. "There's nothing I was feeling then that I haven't made abundantly clear to you by now."

Iris thought that was fair, but she also thought there was more to it than he was willing to dwell on.

When he saw Iris pout her lip unconsciously and blink at him, Barry jogged his memory for some tidbit to appease her. 

"Okay," he sighed, already regretting what he was going to say. "There is _one_ thing I never told you. Why Becky Cooper hated you so much."

Iris quirked a brow. "She hated me because she hated everyone," she stated matter-of-factly. "Because she was a nightmare."

"No," Barry said slowly. "No, that actually wasn't it at all. I mean, yeah she was kind of a…" he trailed off, not wanting to speak ill of someone he dated. "There was a specific reason why she really, _really_ didn't like you."

Iris blinked and gestured for him to continue, intrigued.

Barry groaned internally and rubbed his eyes. "After we started dating, we were making out in her room one day and we started getting carried away. Her parents weren't home and it was the first time…" he trailed off, not finding certain information relevant to the story. "Anyway, I got lost in the moment. And I thought it was going well, but then it got really quiet all of a sudden… I didn't even realize I'd moaned your name until Becky got really still. She was _pissed_. She kicked me out. It took days to convince her that there was nothing going on between us. And even then, she never fully believed that was the truth. After that she was just a different person. The way she would look at you and talk about you... " he shook his head remembering the nightmare that was his nine months with Becky Cooper.

"That was basically the beginning of the end for us," Barry revealed. "I think she only stayed with me for as long as she did to spite you."

He frowned. "Well, no that's exactly why she stayed. She said so herself when she finally broke up with me."

Iris didn't want to laugh. She really didn't. Barry looked mortified by the confession.

She knew he hadn't wanted to say because he thought it painted him in a bad light- to her, he looked like a creepy horndog and to Becky he looked like a horrible boyfriend.

But, after a long pause between them she snorted and laughed. It was just too much. Firstly because Barry looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him up and secondly because the information was tripping her up. 

She had asked for a juicy secret and Barry had delivered in spades. In a million years, Iris would have never guessed this one.

That Becky god damn Cooper had spent all of high school hating her so much because Becky's boyfriend moaned Iris's name once when they were kissing. 

In the end, she’d hated Iris for the same reason Iris disliked her: she was jealous of Barry's affection towards her. And yes, there were a million non-Barry related reasons why Iris thought Becky sucked, but the most relevant was that Barry somehow dated someone that awful. 

Back then their mutual disdain had been epic. 

Now, she just found the idea of Becky and Barry humorous. She took in her husband's scarlet cheeks and stifled another laugh. "Ohh, honey it's okay!"

She ran the back of her hand along his cheek. "You were like 16. You don't have to be embarrassed! It's not like you did it on purpose."

Barry didn't look convinced and Iris decided not to dwell on the confession. Even though it had left her with so many new questions. 

"Do you want me to tell an embarrassing secret next?" she laughed.

Barry cracked a small grin, mostly because Iris laughing was contagious, not because that hellish memory had become even a little funny to him. 

"No that's alright," he mumbled. "I'll ask a question."

Iris let her laughter died down and gestured for him to go ahead. 

Barry thought for a moment. "If I survive Crisis, will you finally come with me to Comic Con?"

He knew Iris didn't like to talk about Crisis. Not even a little. The word was all but forbidden in their house. 

But, she was the one who advocated for an open game here and he hoped she would focus more on what he was asking than on their ticking clock. 

She did. Iris looked at him lovingly and squeezed his hand. 

"I'll follow you anywhere you go, baby," she swore to him. 

Barry smiled and kissed her forehead. "Come July I'm gonna hold you to that."

Iris chuckled. "Deal. Okay my turn. Hmm… what's the angriest you've ever been at me?"

"I've never-" Barry started before she shot him a deadpanned look.

He smirked and reconsidered the fib. "Alright. Senior year. Homecoming."

Iris figured as much. She's known Barry since they were eight and in that time they'd only had four major fights. They'd had disagreements, sure. Especially after he'd become the Flash. But arguments with shouting, storming off, or subsequent silent treatment had only happened four times. Last spring when he'd sent Nora away, a few years back when Grodd had kidnapped Joe and Eddie, the screaming match they'd had their junior year right before they'd hopped in Joe's convertible and crashed it. 

And senior year Homecoming. 

"In my defense," Iris began slowly, once again proclaiming her innocence. "I didn't know the camera was on. And also the guy at the store told me that that specific breed didn't usually bite."

"That wasn't the point though," Barry said, quickly going to his usual rebuttal. "It wouldn't have been so aggressive if you'd just remembered to check for gas."

"I did!" she frowned. She couldn't believe he still didn't believe her after all this time. "And it's not my fault that the grocery store was closed that week! You know you always forget that part!"

Barry counted to ten in his head and Iris regretted the question.

Clearly, years hadn't cooled their anger or changed their point of views on the subject. This would probably be the one fight that never got resolved.

"Okay, that one should've stayed in the vault," she admitted lowly. "Let's move on."

"Fine," Barry nodded, shedding his annoyance at the memory. "I want a secret."

Iris thought about one to reveal. She almost tried to use her turn to try and reiterate her defense on the Homecoming saga, but she thought better of it. 

Instead she thought of a secret that made her smile. One she'd never thought she'd share. Especially not with Barry. 

"You were my first kiss," she whispered.

Barry's face softened and then scrunched up in confusion. "That's not possible…"

Iris nodded. "It's true. Valentine's Day 2002. My dad was working late so you and I stayed up and watched While You Were Sleeping and I think every single Nora Ephron movie," she recounted. "You fell asleep. I was going to wake you, but… I don't know. I was just looking at you and every single feeling of love all those movies had been describing all night- they just seemed normal to me."

Barry vaguely remembered the night she was talking about. They'd done that type of thing so many times, he'd lost count. But, he listened intently as she recounted this particular memory.

"Those feelings all those movies talked about were how I felt whenever I looked at you. So, I was already feeling a type of way watching them be framed romantically. And you’d told me you'd just kissed Fatima Khan earlier that month which had made me really angry at the time. And I guess everything just sort of boil over," she shrugged. "So I leaned down while you were sleeping and I kissed you. It was just a peck. Then I immediately felt confused and awkward and bad so I punched your arm."

 _That_ Barry did remember because it was the closest he's ever come to meeting Iris's right hook. 

One minute he was asleep the next the wallop to his chest shot him right off the couch.

"You'd kissed me that night?" he asked dumbfounded. 

Iris nodded. “First time I'd ever kissed anybody. I never said anything because I was confused about why I’d done it and how it made me feel afterwards.”

He understood. Iris has spent many nights since they’d gotten together trying to put into words all the things she’d felt for him growing up. All the romantic feelings that she’d just assumed were normal for best friends and then all the feelings she’d tried to suppress when she got older and she’d learned that they weren’t.

“I wish I hadn’t been asleep,” Barry told her. “Or that you’d tried again when I woke up.”

“So do I,” she said. “But, if I had to choose between that and any first kiss I had with any other guy, I’d choose ours.”

“Would you have said yes if I had asked you out in high school?”

“I think eventually,” she nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah.”

She realized how that sounded when Barry gave her a withering look. She laughed. “Not like that! I mean eventually like once I thought about my feelings for you honestly and I stopped running from them. I think I probably would have been speechless and caught off guard. Maybe a little mad. But, mostly at the fact that you would’ve had the courage to admit what I couldn’t. But, once all those feelings were out of the way; yeah. I would have said yes.”

She smiled wistfully at the thought before her eyes grew sad and she looked down. “We could’ve avoided all those wasted years,” she said quietly. More to herself than to him. “If we'd gotten together back then we could’ve had so much more time together. Before…”

Barry gently raised her chin and shook his head at her dark thoughts. 

“Nothing was wasted,” he promised softly. “We’ve always been exactly where we were meant to be. Right beside each other.”

Iris blinked quickly, her eyes glistened and she nodded, letting his words wash over her. 

“Okay,” she accepted.

Barry pulled her into a hug and leaned them both back on the couch. Iris rested her head on his shoulder and he rubbed her arm in comfort.

They didn't speak for a while after that. Iris sniffled every so often and Barry whispered sounds of comfort, but other than that there was quiet.

Barry wondered if he should move them someplace more comfortable, but he decided to leave her be.

Iris eventually settled down. Her tears ceased and he felt her body stop quivering.

He flashed and got her a cup of water and she drank it gratefully. 

" 'm sorry," she mumbled when it was done.

Barry shushed her apology with a single shake of his head.

He pressed a kiss into her hair. "You want me to tell you a secret?" he questioned against her hair. 

Iris shook her head. "I'll take a question," she said softly. 

"Okay," he agreed. 

"Did you eat my birthday cupcake?" she whispered. 

Barry froze. 

He looked down at his wife and she turned and looked up at him, blinking her big eyes underneath glistening lashes. 

Barry tried to put some distance between them, but Iris locked her arms around his waist with surprising strength.

She stared innocently up at him and he chuckled nervously.

"You know we never actually went over the rules of the game," Barry scratched his ear. 

"What rules? We're just two people playing a friendly game," Iris shrugged a shoulder.

Barry wasn't fooled. He carefully moved a tendril of hair away from her face. "Does this 'friendly game' have real world consequences?" 

Iris reached for his hand, pressing a kiss to his palm as she studied him intently. Her face shed the last of its sadness. Now she was laser-focused on her interrogation. 

He didn't blame her. This was a mystery she's waited over 10 years to solve.

The mystery of the vanished birthday cupcake had almost ripped the West household in half years ago. 

The afternoon of Iris's 17th birthday, she'd basically come skipping home after school squealing with glee at the fact that Stephen Johnson had gifted her with a homemade red velvet and white truffle cupcake that he'd baked from scratch. 

The fact that the captain of the soccer team and the cutest boy in school had given her such a thoughtful birthday gift left Iris giddy and smitten. 

She had made a big show of putting the desert in a container and placing it carefully in the fridge before she went up to her room to shower and do homework. 

And when she was done with that and the birthday dinner her dad and Barry had cooked for her, she went back into the fridge to eat her dessert and found the cupcake disappeared. 

Though apologetic, neither her father nor her best friend could tell her what had happened to it and she'd been so upset, she didn't talk to them for days.

Of course, she forgave them because that's just the type of person she is, but Iris was still hurt by the inconsiderate act of one of them eating her birthday gift _on her birthday_ and then lying about it.

She still brought it up from time to time, still tried to find out which of them did it, but she never got an answer.

Now, Barry was certain she'd finally cornered him at the right chance to get the truth. 

"No," he said slowly in answer to her question. "I did not eat it."

Iris relaxed a little, trusting that Barry wouldn't lie to her during this game. Which meant she finally had the truth that her dad--

"I didn't eat it," Barry continued remorsefully. "I smushed it."

Iris pulled away from him, indignation high. "You _smushed_ it? Why would you do that?"

"It was an accident, I swear," Barry defended. "I was cleaning up the kitchen and when I opened the fridge I pulled it out of the container- just to look at for a second. And then Joe came out of _nowhere_ and scared the crap out of me. My hand crushed it."

"Joe didn't believe it was an accident or his fault. He told me to clean it up and get rid of the evidence. You came back down too quickly for me to call Stephen and ask for another one."

Iris shook her head incredulously. "Why would you lie about it for so long? You could've just told me it was an accident, Barry!"

"There's no way you would've believed that," he reminded her. Which was very much the truth.

It was no secret that Barry disliked Stephen Johnson.

Now in hindsight, Iris could attribute Barry's irrational hatred for one of the nicest guys in school to his own jealousy regarding Iris's well-advertised crush on him. But, back then she was confused by it. 

And if Barry had come to her and told her he'd 'accidently' smashed the cupcake Stephen had made; Iris doubted she would've believed him.

"Okay. Fair. But, why were you touching it in the first place?"

"I wasn't going to do anything to it. I just wanted to see what the big deal was," Barry blushed. "I’d baked you a cake almost every birthday and I'd never seen you half as excited. Thought maybe you'd like a recipe like that better."

"Heey, I loved my birthday cakes!" she pressed. She felt bad that Barry thought she wasn't appreciative of them. "It was just a guy I had a crush on made me a treat. I was going to be dramatic about it."

"I know," Barry assured. "That's why I wasn't trying to ruin it. It was an accident. Well actually," he corrected. "Not so much an accident as it was entirely Joe's fault."

Iris chuckled lowly. She was glad she'd been wrong and neither of them had been cruel and eaten it. 

But, she had to admit, for as long as Joe and Barry hid the truth about the cupcake, the answer to this decade-long search was more anticlimactic than she thought it would be. 

She tsked. "Okay fine. I accept your answer. Your turn."

Barry relaxed. And he let of the sliver of fear he'd carried around since that damn cupcake had crumbled between his fingers. 

"I would like a secret," he requested. 

Iris thought for a minute and once again, Barry found her perusing through her mental catalogue disconcerting.

“Okay,” she laughed lowly. “There’s one.”

"Before the wedding, I was really stressed out about writing my vows and I went online for some ideas or inspiration or whatever," she shook her head. "Long story short, I wrote you a six-minute love song inspired by the 1986 Jim Henson fantasy musical, Labyrinth."

"No, you didn't," Barry said immediately.

"I absolutely did," Iris groaned.

"Where is it?" he questioned.

"There's only one copy still in existence," she told him. "It's hidden somewhere so deep in this city that you'll never find it."

"Iris… are you lying?"

"I swear," she laughed. "It's real."

"What's it called?"

"I didn't title it."

"Okay, _that's_ a lie," Barry decided.

"Fine, I named it," she confessed hesitantly. "Don't laugh. It's called: 'You Solved the Maze to My Heart.' "

Barry blinked at her. Iris couldn't pin down the wave of different emotions running across his face.

"What instruments were used in the song?" he wondered. 

"I hope you know that each of these questions count towards your twenty-two!" Iris exclaimed.

"I don't care," he pushed back. 

"Barry!"

"Fine. I'll ask a different question," he put his hands up. 

"Thank you," she said. 

"Can I hear the song?"

She laughed. "No."

"Can I read the lyrics to the song?"

"No."

"Can you at least tell me the opening line?"

"Absolutely not."

"Can you give a small clue about where you hid the song?"

Iris laughed harder and smacked his arm. "It's my turn! And you blew through about ten of your questions by the way."

"It was worth it," he said, not wanting to leave this topic at all, but he backed down and allowed Iris her turn. She waited for him to settle before she asked. "What's your favorite memory?"

There were a few Barry had in mind. A few with friends, the majority with Iris. And the precious ones of his parents. 

But there was one that encapsulated everything he held dear. "Halloween 1999," he stated.

Iris didn't know which that was right off the top of her head, but when she counted back the years and dusted off some memories, the thought made her smile. "That was pretty great," she agreed. 

They'd been nine that year. All three of their parents had the rare night off and they'd taken the two of them trick or treating. The weather had been perfect, the candy was plentiful and the two groups of friends had laughed heartily as they went all the way from Bedham Bridge down to the southside of the waterfront. 

And when they were done, the five of them trudged back to the West house for Joe's annual Halloween block party. 

Barry and Iris didn't sleep until well into the night. It was the latest their parents ever let them stay up. 

And when they finally did slip into the warm sleeping bags in Iris's room, with their bellies stuffed and their costumes crumpled, it was to the sounds of their parents' lively chatter downstairs.

"It was a perfect day," Barry nodded. 

They sat in that memory for a beat, letting the joy of it settle before they moved on. 

"Alright," Barry said when the moment melted away. 

"Back to my very first question that you never answered. What's one thing you never told me, but wanted to?" 

"I know we always say that it was an instant connection between us when we met but," Iris said carefully, ready to reveal a long-harbored secret. "There was about a ten-minute period of time after we first met where I didn't want to be your friend because I thought your first name was too weird."

"Woow!" Barry exclaimed and pulled back. He untangled himself from her completely.

"I was eight, cut me some slack!" Iris tried to cover her grin, but she failed miserably. 

"You always said you didn't think my name was weird," he reminded. "I think you're the only person I've ever met who said that."

Iris bit her lip. "I lied."

"Do you still think it's weird?"

Iris burst out laughing at that question. And at the panic and offense on his face. "Of course not!" she reached out and held his arm. "I think it's a very nice name. It suits you. And even if it didn't, it's too late to change it now."

She looked at him thoughtfully. "Right? It's too late to change it?"

Barry stopped his fretting and grinned at her teasing. 

He grabbed her waist and tossed her back onto the couch, tickling her until she was screaming for mercy.

He ignored her for several minutes, relentlessly feathering her sides. He finally took pity on her when she was all out of breath. 

"Just for that, I'm putting Bartholomew down on our son's birth certificate," he vowed as he got off her and helped her sit up. "And he doesn't get a nickname."

Iris smacked his chest as she struggled to catch her breath. She wiped under her eyes and tried to get her giggles under control.

"If you do that I'll make it my life's mission to turn him against you," Iris responded hoarsely.

It took a few minutes for her to compose herself and for her belly to stop aching. "Can't believe that's what I get for my honesty."

Barry chortled. "Just ask your next question!"

Iris smiled at the amusement on his face. "Fine. What is the very first thing on your bucket list?" she raised.

"Oh that's easy," he said.

Iris felt two blasts of wind as he sped upstairs and back in a blink. 

He held a crinkled sheet of paper in his hands and Iris saw the words 'Bucket List' at the top.

Barry held it out to her and Iris reached for it before he pulled the paper back at the last second.

"You know some people would argue that a bucket list is more private than wedding vows," Barry told her thoughtfully. "But, I'm sharing my list with you because I love you.... Just something to consider."

Iris chuckled and grabbed the sheet from his hands. "You're not getting the song."

"I'm literally the one person on earth who's actually _meant_ to hear your wedding vows, remember?" Barry tried, but Iris shushed him as she scanned his list.

It was a pretty hefty compilation spanning years. 

Iris recognized Barry's old chicken scratch handwriting. 

The way he used to write before Singh made him take a penmanship class when he started the job because Barry's reports were completely illegible. 

He had about 30 or 40 things listed already. 

And at the very top of the list were three words. 

'Marry Iris West.'

Iris took a deep breath. She didn't know what she thought would be there instead. Maybe a fun activity they could complete together like skydiving or snorkeling.

But, three years with Barry and she was still finding reminders that he'd genuinely loved her their entire lives.

A love like that would've been completely overwhelming if she'd loved Barry any less.

Still, most days it took her breath away.

She folded the list carefully, handling it with more care now than when she'd snatched it from him. And she pressed it to her chest. "Can I have this?" she asked.

Barry smiled and nodded.

"When was the moment you fell in love with me?" Iris asked him. 

It was Barry's turn, but she needed to know the answer right then more than anything.

"The day I met you," he told her. 

Iris shook her head. "I know _now_ you know what you were feeling was love, but when did you know _then_? When did you stop thinking 'I have a crush on Iris' to 'I'm in love with Iris'?"

He thought about it. "Hmm I think the clearest memory of me thinking I'm in love with you was the summer before we started high school. When your dad dumped us at Grandma Esther's for three weeks."

"Esther was showing me all these letters Stanley had written her during the war. And I remember thinking that I should write you letters too since that's what you do for someone you're in love with when you're thinking about them."

Iris felt her eyes sting and she nodded happily. It was a beautiful sentiment. And it was made even sweeter at the revelation that her Grandma Esther and her Grandpa Stanley were a part of her and Barry's love story in a way.

She remembered the tale of Barry's own grandparents from when he'd proposed to her and she felt even more moved.

"When was your moment?" he wondered softly. 

"Our perfect date," Iris said right away. "The bowling alley."

"The bowling alley?" he questioned, surprised by her answer. "Not the French Riviera?"

She shook her head. "The Riviera was beautiful. But, the bowling alley was perfect."

Barry thought about their third date at their favorite childhood spot. And he had to agree that from start to finish, that date had been pretty perfect.

"We were standing there laughing and playing and I just remember thinking that I could love you forever," Iris said genuinely. "Not for a moment, not even for a lifetime, but forever. Cause I realized right then that no one in the history of the world- past, present, or future- will ever love someone the way that I love you."

Barry looked down at her, touched by her words. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from being a total sap, but Iris noticed his emotion anyway. 

He kissed her firmly.

"I can think of _one_ other person who might know how you're feeling," he said when he pulled back a little. 

"I think you get pretty close," she teased. He kissed her again, longer this time and it left Iris seeing stars. 

"It's your turn again," she stuttered out when he finally released her and she found her bearings. "A secret?"

Barry wiped her lipstick from his lips and studied her face and shook his head. “Question. Whose name did you tattoo on your shoulder?”

Iris coughed suddenly, having choked a little on her spit. 

She sat up and cleared her throat. "I-.."

Barry raised an eyebrow, patiently waiting for her answer. 

Iris didn't appreciate being blindsided, but she supposed it was payback for the cupcake question.

She gathered herself and sat back some, trying to give off an air of nonchalance. She cleared her throat again. "It wasn't the name of an ex-lover like Sherloque said."

"What was it then?"

Iris groaned and tried to issue a disclaimer. “Just so it’s clear, I was wasted and pissed off at the time.”

“Eddie and I were fighting about the Flash. It was actually a _really_ bad fight. We didn't talk for days," she laughed humorlessly. "Seems like all we did those days was argue."

"Anyway, I didn’t tell you or Joe, but I went to stay with Tracey for a week. We got super drunk one night and went out downtown and I got a tattoo to spite Eddie. He never saw it. I had it removed pretty quickly afterwards."

"What was it?" Barry tried to suppress a grin. He knew Eddie was a good man. A hero. But, to this day, Barry wrestled with his reflexive pettiness regarding Iris's former boyfriend. "Was it a middle finger?"

Iris shook her head. "It was a lightning bolt."

Unfortunately for Barry and his brain that'd begun to short-circuit, both of their phones started beeping loudly with distress calls.

Iris smoothly reached over and unlocked her cell. "Four alarm fire uptown," she read. "It's a meta attack."

Barry cursed the villains of this town. "Don't go anywhere," he told her desperately. "I'll be right back."

Iris smiled coyly and stood up. "Sorry, Flash. I've got to head to work too. A meta attack means lots to repor--"

In an instant Iris was sitting in her seat in the cortex at Star Labs. Her laptop was next to her and her comms were blinking. 

She clicked the receiver. "This could count as kidnapping."

"Just wait for me there," Barry responded as he raced to the scene of the fire. "I'll be done in a sec and then we can finish the game."

Iris clanked away on the computer. "You mean the game you didn't want to play in the first place?"

"I barely resisted!"

"Either way, we have work to do now. Besides, that was your last turn anyway. You asked for way more than twenty-two truths."

Iris wasn't so concerned about sticking to the rules of the game. She just liked the fact that their game had ended at the perfect spot to leave Barry reeling.

Iris heard a loud whoosh on his end and her monitor let her know that the fire was officially out. 

"Another game then?" Barry asked. “You could tell me all about any other Flash tributes you had?’ The shouts in the back died down as well. 

His voice grew low and suggestive into the comms. "Or how about a game of all dares this time?" 

Iris was glad he wasn't in front of her. Her face burned from innuendo. She grabbed a small notepad to fan herself and she swallowed hard. 

"I think you'll be tired after this. I don't know if you could handle-"

"-My God! Do you seriously not notice anyone else here!?"

Iris fumbled the notepad and yelped in fright. She looked up and saw Cisco, Ralph, and Caitlin standing right by the satellite monitors looking at her with varying levels of awkwardness and disgust.

"Is this what you guys do when you're on call and no one is around?" Ralph demanded.

Iris quickly shut off the comms, cutting off whatever Barry was going to say. 

"Sorry," she breathed a sheepish laugh. "Didn't see you guys."

She carefully slid out of her seat and pointed to the console. "He uh has it under control so there's no need for… I'm just gonna go."

She grabbed her car keys from under the starboard, grateful that she'd left her car here last night. 

Iris didn't wait for farewells from the team before she was hurrying down the hall. 

She was sure embarrassment would hit her later on, but right now she was more focused on finishing her conversation with her husband. 

Iris used her phone to patch herself through to Barry. He connected the call on the first ring.

"I'm on my way home," she said, getting straight to the point. "Meet me at the loft as soon as you're done. We can play your game. But, it's definitely gonna be a lot more than twenty-two turns."


End file.
